B EAST Magazine website

Nov 18, 2009

I was supposed to head to Poland today but the flight was canceled, so chilling in my cosy flat in da Ukraine watching classics of Polish animation on YouTube. They’re pretty amazing, and surreal, and a reminder that even during the dark days of Communism, whose downfall made headlines again these past few weeks, Poland boasted a vibrant artistic & theatrical culture that was far more sophisticated than the tinbox cars and shoddy consumer products that the Commies churned out.

Animation in the Communist 50s, like childrens stories or the circus, was far removed from the censor’s gaze, and so there was far more freedom for experimentation there than in the classical arts, like painting or theater. Building on a tradition that dates back to the 20s and 30s, Polish auters like Jan Lenica, Piotr Dumala and Ladislaw Starewicz fashioned a distinctive angst-ridden, paranoid & surreal style that has in the decades since won critical acclaim. When museums want to appear serious and intellectually stimulating—rather than pandering to mass culture, as they do more often than not—Polish animation is given the adulation and respect it deserves. In the last few years, high-profile museums, from New York’s MoMa to Paris’ Pompidiu Arts Center have shown collections of Polish animation. In fact, Polish animation has been so praised by the West that it has become an adjective, with Director Terry Gilliam favorably describing a film has having a “Polish animation feeling” in a recent Guardian interview.

The dark master of this surreal, Kafkaesque genre whose classics include iconic shorts like Rhinoceros, Labryinth and New Janko the musician was Jan Lenica, famously named by Roman Polanski as one of his two favorite filmmakers. He is in fact, best kown in the UK for his poster art for Polanski’s early films, Repulsion & Cul-de-Sac. Their childlike design and gauche absurdism echo the strange, surreal feel of his animated works.

Without further ado then, check out some of the classics of Lenica’s Polish animation below.

Last month Marc Almond released his new album, Orpheus in Exile, dedicated to the tragic life, times and tunes of Vadim Kozin, a chanson singer exiled by the Soviets to Russia’s far East because of his sexuality. Though packed with the classics of the Russian romance and folk genres, the record didn’t exactly take the classic route to completion: going virtually native, Marc recorded in intimate apartments around town and playing private shows for assorted oligarchs and biznessmen for the big bucks by night - a B.Eastie after our own hearts, then. Alex Jackson caught up with the story behind Orpheus…

Hey Marc, so you first visited Russia on a tour back in 1990, then lived there again circa ‘01 and were back, on and off, over the last few years creating the new record - seems you can’t keep away, eh?

Some of the best times of my life have been spent living in Moscow. It’s a hard city to penetrate for Westerners but I feel privileged that I got to know a bit more of it and the way it works than most. I had an  apartment in a state-building that was just great to go back to after recording and make dinner for friends and it was wonderful to work with [entertainment Royalty] Alla Bayanova, Lyudmilla Zykina [Brezhnev's favourite] and the Rossiya Orchestra. All thanks to great friends who opened doors for me, especially creative ones.

The creative experience was a good one I take it?

Recording was fantastic. The studios were really high quality, even tiny ones in people’s apartments had a great sound - especially for vocals. It was also wonderful to see some of Moscow’s decadent nightlife!

Speaking of which, gigging for oligarchs must have been insane?

I’ll always enjoy a bit of decadence if I have the opportunity but - even having lived in London and New York as I have done - I was stunned by the levels of opulence. Absolute decadence! At some of the private parties oligarchs would be sat on thrones like Kings and Queens, with great feasts attended by the beautiful people. Certain performances I’d rather not have done but I felt the end justified the means. Moscow can be very expensive and I don’t like to stay in bad places and eat bad food. More importantly though, I will not cut corners on my recording and it was very important for me to use the famed Rossiya Orchestra. I like the idea of being a wandering troubadour and I think it’s a worthy way to finance a project. I’d do the same again to record in Moscow more.

Ok, so why Russian folk and why Vadim Kozin?

I fell in love with it while touring Russia at the beginning of the 1990s and people gave me tapes. Simple yet beautiful melodies, melancholic but uplifting. And I related to it. For Orpheus I picked songs to tell a story of Kozin’s life: Probably Russia’s first gay icon, Kozin suffered for being a victim of his time and political climate. It’s about how life and circumstances change things, how what is forgotten one day is remembered and celebrated the next, how what is outlawed becomes accepted. I want people to love Kozin’s songs as I have, be interested in him and the times lived through and take something for their own lives from it. We sometimes take our liberties for granted.

In Greek mythology Orpheus’ music never lost it’s power, even when sent to Hades - just like Kozin in exile. Are you aligning yourself with these two figures - what is Marc Almond’s exile from?

I’ve often felt that I’ve been excluded, that I didn’t fit in and never felt I was good at communicating except through music. I still don’t feel part of a community, musical or otherwise. At times I’ve felt alone. Maybe that makes me some kind of exile? Though, I would never compare my privileged life to someone like Kozin’s.

Finally Marc, what project(s) lie in the pipeline?

I’m currently recording a more mainstream album as a follow-up to Stardom Road but all original songs. It’s called Variete and is out, I hope, in May. I’d also love to do an album of [fellow Russian folk chansonnier] Alexander Vertinsky songs but I fell out with his estate. They tried to get my previous ‘Russian’ album, Heart on Snow, banned in Russia as it contained a song - Nuit de Noel - they didn’t approve being included because I couldn’t pay them enough. They didn’t succeed. If I’m determined to do something, I do it.

Listen to Orpheus in Exile here

July 2, 2009
By Vijai

Living in East Europe, we no strangers to Lagos crack dealers, or ponzi scheme pranksters for that matter. Prague’s Radost was the ground zero for the city’s smiley-smiley Nigerian hustlers in the 90s, and so was Moscow’s Cabana club. A shout out to the glorious Eugene, whose tight white T-shirts were cool before they became fashionable elsewhere, and who made some Moscow gays very happy with his performances at gay mecca, Chance.

But what do we make of K.O.F.Y, a self-confessed crack dealer from Lagos who claims on his myspace page to have shared a cell with Fela Kuti? Unlike his hip-hop compatriots, our K.O.F.Y, who’s inspired by a former UN Secretary General, prefers to rap about African dictators, make strange calls to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and complains about slow download times on the internet.

The Afrojetset tracks are all set in a downtempo, ambient beat with some rap and globalbeat rhythms filling in the space. The brainchild of Belgrade hipster Vuksa Velickovic—who’s written a novel and writes sharp, satirical articles for local zines—K.O.F.Y is just so out there (a Serbian dude painting himself in blackface in 2009 for god’s sake) and politically incorrect. Fortunately, the tracks are laced with enough absurdity and strange, paranoid lyrics to make even a Mugabe choke on his lunch. And, hey, spoofing African dictators is a welcome change from run-of-the-mill celebrity impersonation, and ‘pussycontrol’ obsessions.

Check out our man, when he rings Hosni Mubarak on the track, They Call Me KOFY.

Hello Mubarak, this is KOFY …
We ask you not to use the washing machine
And the dryer
In the laundry room during the following times:
Monday to Friday from 12 until 2 pm

And here is our favorite video from the Return of the Secretary Genearl EP-Mugabe’s Lunch.